BUDDHISM is generally regarded, with good reason, as the most peaceful of world religions. Like other south Asian faiths, it stresses the principle of ahimsa, the “non-injury” of other living things. Yet its teachings also emphasise that violence harms the spiritual state of the perpetrator, as well as the victim.

BUDDHISM is generally regarded, with good reason, as the most peaceful of world religions. Like other south Asian faiths, it stresses the principle of ahimsa, the “non-injury” of other living things. Yet its teachings also emphasise that violence harms the spiritual state of the perpetrator, as well as the victim.